Published 1949 by Theosophical University Press; verbatim with the William Roberts Edition, Exeter, 1863. Electronic version ISBN 1-55700-136-7 (print copy also available). This edition may be downloaded for off-line viewing without charge. For ease of searching, no diacritical marks appear in the electronic version of the text. (Böhme is transliterated Boehme.)
WITH the greatly increased interest in the subject of theosophy during the past several decades it is felt timely to reprint this work of some 18th century "theosophers," as representative of a movement active since the commencement of our racial experience. Even though most serious students today, including those in the lay category, approach their researches from the critical point of view, few are aware of the full scope of theosophic effort put forth in the centuries previous to the 19th, when H.P. Blavatsky once more revivified its active dissemination.
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, Cagliostro, and the Count Saint Germain in their respective ways exerted a major influence on the thought of their time as did Jacob Boehme in an earlier period. Old and crystallized molds of dogmatism were broken through, at least in the field of the best educated researchers. The courage of their followers, risking 'burning at the stake' for their heresies, has given us, however, some fruits of their labor that we of the 20th century may benefit by their efforts.
In this volume, containing as it does the correspondence between two active "theosophers," the one a pupil, will be found the fundamental background of the original Theosophia, divine wisdom, from which all progressive thinking springs. It is reprinted in the hope that it will reach the serious-minded theosophists of our time who find themselves in the same stream of expansion in which were those earlier exponents of the ancient mystery teachings.
A. L. CONGER
December, 1949
Covina, California
Theosophical University Press, publishing and distributing theosophical literature since 1886: PO Box C, Pasadena, CA 91109-7107 USA; email: tupress@theosociety.org; voice: (626) 798-3378. Free printed catalog available on request; also online at TUP Catalog.